1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multimedia messaging system and method, and more particularly to a system and method for controlling message procedures and selecting appropriate modes of transmission.
2. Description of Related Art
These days many means of communication are available for people to contact each other, such as SMS (Short Message Service), PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) and E-mail. Communication technology has greatly changed the way of life of many people. In May 2001, the GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) Association reported that over 500 billion short messages were sent by way of the GSM system in the first quarter of 2001. More and more message service providers are to providing message facilities such as financial information, stock information, news and entertainment information. With the development of communications technology and widespread business applications thereof, message services need to be reliable and timely. For instance, when a client receives a message, he/she should send return information to a message provider confirming receipt. The client may not timely receive messages because of the network congestion, shutdown of equipment, or failure of part of the network. One solution for this problem is to send the messages by way of alternative means. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,995,594, issued on Nov. 30, 1999 discloses a system and method for message alerting in a multimedia messaging system. When a message provider sends an alert E-mail to a mail box of a client, the message provider also sends by way of alternative means. The alert informs the client via SMS that the E-mail has been sent out. The alert is continually sent until the client sends confirmation of receipt of the E-mail to the message provider.
However, the above-described system and method cannot ensure that the client timely receives the messages. This is particularly a problem when a short message receiver of the client is in power-off mode.